I'm reading this awesome book by one of the founders of Twitter, and he shares an interesting story:

When they first built the University of California at Irvine they just put the buildings in. They did not put any sidewalks; they just planted grass. The next year, they came back put the sidewalks where the trails were in the grass.

This reminded me that when it comes to our art, product, service, or whatever else you're giving to or sharing with people, there are two potential outcomes at play. The first is our ideas (i.e. hopes) regarding how people will interact with our art, product, service, or whatever. The second is how other people actually will interact with out product, service, or whatever.

Of course, you can manage or design what you are giving away, sharing, or building in such a way that it results in your hopes. However, this may not always be the best approach. Sometimes, it's important to give people time to interact with what you are giving away, sharing, or building, so that they can show you how to ought to manage or design it.

I'm not always one for letting people dictate the decisions I make in my creativity, however, there is certainly something be said for involving people in the creative process in an organic way so that they can help make your art better.

Because even if you exclude people from your building and design process, they'll still have an influence on it at some point. So you might as well let them have some influence at the start, middle, and end — depending on the project. Just like the in the story above.